Michael McGuire: Our politicians have just learnt the folly of loyalty

IT seems a cheap commodity for some, while others stay true to their word, and party. But loyalty doesn’t guarantee a reward — just look at Julie Bishop, writes Michael McGuire.

THE word loyalty has been thrown about a lot in the last week.

Many people seemed to be demanding this elusive quality from other people.

Others have been offering it all around. Selling it off like sausages at a Bunnings.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann managed to pledge loyalty to three prime ministers, or would-be prime ministers, in the space of about three days. That has to be some sort of record. It might also indicate loyalty is not that high on his list of priorities.

First it was Malcolm Turnbull (“I will continue to serve him loyally into the future”). Then voted for Peter Dutton. Then it was new PM Scott Morrison. And he only switched to Morrison because, in the end he couldn’t count to 43. A slight concern for the nation’s finance minister.

Mathias Cormann, who was sworn in as Minister for Finance today, spread his loyalty around. (Pic: Lukas Coch/AAP)

Loyalty then is not a stone pillar, immovable, upright. It is malleable, changeable, and after the events of the last week, possibly meaningless.

But there are different types of loyalty. Some more damaging than others.

The most poisonous in a political sense is loyalty to yourself. This one comes at everybody’s else expense.

You could categorise two of our last four prime ministers as suffering from this affliction. Tony Abbott’s loyalty to his own sense of grievance was a prime driving force in last week’s Canberra farce.

If Robert Menzies is the founder of the modern Liberal Party, Abbott could well be its undertaker. The night before Turnbull was replaced, Abbott reportedly held a boozy night in his office to celebrate as his party burned down around him and as a nation watched the prime ministership being tossed around like a kid’s plaything.

If Abbott had a shred of loyalty to the party that installed him as its leader, he would have departed parliament years ago.

Tony Abbott refused to leave parliament after he was deposed as prime minister. (Pic: Joel Carrett/AAP)

But, no, there he still is. Clinging like a limpet mine to the good ship Liberal Party, just waiting to explode again.

Then there is Kevin Rudd. A man whose sense of self destroyed his own government, then Julia Gillard’s. And now is acting as a commentator on what ails Australian democracy. We can add self-awareness to loyalty as personality traits that have passed Rudd by.

It can be OK to change loyalties (although if you do so as often as Cormann you run the risk of looking ridiculous) if there are justifiable reasons. As opinions can change when new facts are presented, so can loyalties.

But what do we make of the loyalty expressed by WA backbencher Andrew Hastie who last year said: “I’ve always expressed my loyalty to Malcolm Turnbull. He is the prime minister under God. I consider that a sacred office.’’

Julie Bishop was arguably the most loyal Liberal of the last decade. (Pic: Lukas Coch/AAP)

Is God now unhappy with him? Certainly someone is. Despite all his plotting last week, he remains on the backbench.

There are then different levels of loyalty.

Politicians like to proclaim loyalty to country, but also in the mix is party, state, mate, faction and, of course, self.

Sometimes these loyalties collide and the outcome is not what was expected.

It was a shocking moment when, after Rudd’s successful 2013 challenge on Gillard, that Labor senator Penny Wong walked out a step behind the new prime minister as he strode from the room where he won his victory. Up until that moment Wong had been one of Gillard’s strongest supporters.

Wong could argue she placed her loyalty to the party above that to her friend, and perhaps that’s admirable, but nonetheless, there was something dispiriting about the ruthlessness of it.

Maybe loyalty, in politics, is too much to ask for. It’s fine in other areas of life. Loyalty to family, loyalty to your footy team. Adelaide’s Rory Sloane was lauded for his loyalty to the Crows when most expected him to return to Victoria.

It’s possible that loyalty in politics won’t get you too far anyway.

Look at Julie Bishop. Arguably the most loyal Liberal of the last decade, and perhaps also the most competent, who was stitched up by her colleagues in the leadership ballot, has now quit as foreign minister and may soon be lost to parliament entirely.

Michael McGuire is a journalist for The Adelaide Advertiser.

@mcguiremi

Originally published as Michael McGuire: Our politicians have just learnt the folly of loyalty